Thou❜lt not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it, That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours, Yet cam'st thou to a morsel of this feast, Enter TITUS LARTIUS, with his Power, from the LART. pursuit. O general, Here is the steed, we the caparison: 2 MAR. Pray now, no more: my mother, sides this great honorable offer he had made him, he gaue him in testimonie that he had wonne that daye the price of prowes above all other, a goodly horse with a capparison, and all furniture to him: which the whole armie beholding, dyd marvelously praise and commend. But Martius stepying forth, told the consul, he most thanckefully accepted the gifte of his horse, and was a glad man besides, that his seruice had deserued his generalls commendation: and as for his other offer, which was rather a mercenary reward, than an honourable recompence, he would none of it, but was contented to haue his equall parte with other souldiers." STEEVENS. 1 And, gladly quak'd,] i. e. thrown into grateful trepidation. To quake is used likewise as a verb active by T. Heywood, in his Silver Age, 1613: "We'll quake them at that bar "Where all souls wait for sentence." STEEVENS. ? Here is the steed, we the caparison:] This is an odd encomium. The meaning is, this man performed the action, and we only filled up the show. JOHNSON. Who has a charter to extol3 her blood, When she does praise me, grieves me. I have done, Hath overta'en mine act. 5 You shall not be Сом. The grave of your deserving; Rome must know The value of her own: 'twere a concealment Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement, To hide your doings; and to silence that, Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch'd, Would seem but modest: Therefore, I beseech you, (In sign of what you are, not to reward What you have done,) before our army hear me, MAR. I have some wounds upon me, and they smart To hear themselves remember'd. 3 son. 4 Сом. Should they not," a charter to extol-] A privilege to praise her own JOHNSON. that's for my country:] The latter word is used here, as in other places, as a trisyllable. See Vol. IV. p. 201, n. 5. He, that hath but effected his good will, MALONE. Hath overta'en mine act.] That is, has done as much as I have done, inasmuch as my ardour to serve the state is such that I have never been able to effect all that I wish'd. 6 So, in Macbeth: "The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, "Unless the deed goes with it." MALONE. not to reward What you have done,)] So, in Macbeth: "To herald thee into his sight, not pay thee." STEEVENS. * Should they not,] That is, not be remembered. JOHNSON. Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude, And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses, (Whereof we have ta'en good, and good store,) of all The treasure, in this field achiev'd, and city, Your only choice. I thank MAR. [A long Flourish. They all cry, Marcius! MAR. May these same instruments, which you profane, Never sound more! When drums and trumpets shall 8 - When drums and trumpets shall &c.] In the old copy: when drums and trumpets shall "I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be "When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk, All here is miserably corrupt and disjointed. We should read the whole thus: when drums and trumpets shall I th' field prove flatterers, let camps, as cities, An overture for the wars! The thought is this, If one thing changes its usual nature to a thing most opposite, there is no reason but that all the rest which depend on it should do so too. [If drums and trumpets prove flatterers, let the camp bear the false face of the city.] And if another changes its usual nature, that its opposite should do so too. I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be Made all of false-fac'd soothing! When steel grows [When steel softens to the condition of the parasite's silk, the peaceful hymns of devotion should be employed to excite to the charge.] Now, in the first instance, the thought, in the com, mon reading, was entirely lost by putting in courts for camps; and the latter miserably involved in nonsense, by blundering hymns into him. WARBURTON. The first part of the passage has been altered, in my opinion, unnecessarily by Dr. Warburton; and the latter not so happily, I think, as he often conjectures. In the latter part, which only I mean to consider, instead of him, (an evident corruption) he substitutes hymns; which perhaps may palliate, but certainly has not cured, the wounds of the sentence. I would propose an alteration of two words: grows "Soft as the parasite's silk, let this [i. e. silk] be made "A coverture for the wars!" The sense will then be apt and complete, When steel grows soft as silk, let armour be made of silk instead of steel. TYRWHITT. It should be remembered, that the personal him, is not unfrequently used by our author, and other writers of his age, instead of it, the neuter; and that overture, in its musical sense, is not so ancient as the age of Shakspeare. What Martial has said of Mutius Scævola, may however be applied to Dr. Warburton's proposed emendation: “Si non errâsset, fecerat ille minus.” STEEVENS. Bullokar, in his English Expositor, 8vo. 1616, interprets the word Overture thus: "An overturning; a sudden change.' The latter sense suits the present passage sufficiently well, understanding the word him to mean it, as Mr. Steevens has very properly explained it. When steel grows soft as silk, let silk be suddenly converted to the use of war. We have many expressions equally licentious in these plays. By steel Marcius means a coat of mail. So, in King Henry VI P. III: "Shall we go throw away our coats of steel, "And wrap our bodies in black mourning gowns ?** Shakspeare has introduced a similar image in Romeo and Juliet: "Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, "And in my temper soften'd valour's steel." Overture, I have observed since this note was written, was Soft as the parasite's silk, let him be made As if I loved my little should be dieted Сом. Too modest are you; More cruel to your good report, than grateful To us that give you truly: by your patience, If 'gainst yourself you be incens'd, we'll put you (Like one that means his proper harm,) in manacles, Then reason safely with you.-Therefore, be it known, As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius 9 used by the writers of Shakspeare's time in the sense of prelude or preparation. It is so used by Sir John Davies and Philemon Holland. Malone. 9 For what he did &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch; "After this showte and noyse of the assembly was somewhat appeased, the consul Cominius beganne to speake in this sorte. We cannot compell Martius to take these giftes we offer him, if he will not receaue them: but we will geue him suche a rewarde for the noble seruice he hath done, as he cannot refuse. Therefore we doe order and decree, that henceforth he be called Coriolanus, onles his valiant acts haue wonne him that name be fore our nomination." STEEVENS. 'The folio-Marcus Caius Coriolanus. STEEVENS. |